How Did the Romans Perceive the Greeks

The Romans were much divided in their assessments of the Greeks. There were Graecophiles like Scipio Major, Scipio Minor, Aemilius Paullus, Titus Quinctius Flamininus. and much later, Hadrian. There were Graecophobes like Cato the Elder. Roman contact with the Greek world goes back much farther than the second century B.C. when Rome conquered Greece and […]

How are Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome Related?

According to the German historian Theodor Mommsen, the Greeks and the Romans both had cultural and linguistic roots in what is now eastern Europe. He did extensive studies on their languages and concluded that they were both offshoots of a common branch of Indo-European. Greek civilization began much earlier than Roman. The Greeks had two […]

The Relationship Between Rome and Greece.

The Romans had a relationship with Greece long before they conquered them. The southern part of the Italian Peninsula was colonized by Greeks. The cities of Tarentum, Naples, Metapontum, Locri and others were all Greek speaking. Early in the third century B.C. Italy was invaded by Pyrrhus of Epirus. He won two battles but at […]

Quora Question: Why Did The Romans Not Destroy Greece the Way Destroyed Carthage?

The Romans had a lot more respect for the Greeks than they had for the Carthaginians. They had fought two long and bitter wars with Carthage and regarded them as enemies. There was no such animus in the Roman attitude toward the Greeks. The Greek language was prestigious and a Roman was not considered educated […]

Book Review: Battling the Gods by Tim Whitmarsh.

Battling the Gods by Tim Whitmarsh Battling the Gods explores the ancient origins of atheism. Most of the book deals with ancient Greece. Most other civilizations of the ancient world were decidedly not fertile grounds for nurturing atheists, but the culture of ancient Greece bred philosophy, and some of the strains of Greek philosophy allowed […]

How Did the Romans Overtake the Greeks

A good book to read on this subject is Taken at the Flood by Robin Waterfield. At the end of the third century B.C. most of the Greek cities were under the rule of two successor kingdoms to Alexander the Great; the Macedonian Empire, and the Seleucid Empire. Macedonia, under king Philip V, had sided […]

How Does the Political System in Ancient Rome Differ from That of Modern Day America

How was Roman democracy different from American democracy? Robin Levin, The Roman Republic was not a democracy. It was a plutocratic oligarchy. And the U.S. Republic is also not a true democracy, it is also a plutocratic oligarchy. The Greek historian Polybius, lived in the second century B.C. and spent seventeen years as a hostage […]

What Ancient Rome owed to Greece.

This was a Quora question that I responded to. How does the phrase “the conqueror became the conquered one” relate to Rome’s imperial expansion into the Hellenistic world? Robin Levin, works at Writers and Authors (2012-present)   This was the sentiment of Quintus Horatius Flaccus, commonly known as Horace, who lived from 65 B.C. to […]

Book Review: Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert

The twenty-three year long war with Rome is finally over. Carthage has been defeated and the once wealthy city is depleted of funds. What to do about the mercenaries? They must somehow be paid. The Suffetes decide to appease them by giving them a grand banquet at the property of the immensely wealthy general Hamilcar, […]

Book Review: Mediterranean Anarchy, Interstate Warfare, and the Rise of Rome by Arthur M. Eckstein

This book is for serious students of ancient Rome and its place in antiquity, for those who desire a deeper understanding of the cultural, social, economic and political dynamics of the ancient Mediterranean world that Rome came to dominate, and an insight into how and why Rome came to rule over this entire region. The […]